As the warm air finally found it’s way to Madison everyone came out of hibernation. Between the Big Ten tournament hype and wonderful weather on the Terrace everybody was looking to take to the streets at night, but if you weren’t headed to Union South Friday night you missed out on a good show. Mod Sun based out of Bloomington, Minnesota brought his crew of rappers in the good old RV as part of their “Look Up” tour. It was hard not to like the vibes rolling through the crowd the entire night with the hippy-hop that was going on. Some kid's mom was even in the back of the crowd jamming the entire show.
Karizma was second to take the stage after Gnash in front of one of the larger crowds in the Sett for the year. He is also based out of Minnesota and has something big going for himself with this tour. As a freshman in college he rapped about the struggles of maintaining sobriety with deep songs like “Bottomless Pit.” Most of his tunes were from his new EP titled "Lost", but as he got going he started hyping up the crowd and proved himself. He went from dorm parties and awkward nights with girls, to partying in L.A. As he wrapped up the set, his DJ wandered out onto center stage. The crowd started looking around as a beat slowly started up in the background. I slowly started feeling the grove when he dropped “Mosh Pit,” composed by the wonderful Flosstradamus. My fists went up and arms started T-rexing. The crowd was finally ready for the long line of rappers to come.
KR was next up to the plate and immediately knocked it out of the park. Based out of L.A., he knew what the crowd wanted and needed. His DJ, the same as the first performers, was wearing a shirt with kittens on it making it pretty ironic. There was a black cat on the shirt and it was Friday the 13th! That didn’t phase KR though, as he walked around the stage with presence as if he studied under Chance The Rapper. The plain white t-shirt just helped the look and he threw down his popular album Dearly Beloved. At one point the album was found on Twitter’s music billboard in third place behind Nicki Minaj and Schoolboy Q. This young guy was bumping and set the stage for Dillon Cooper.
The crowd started getting frustrated by all of the openers. Dillon came in from Brooklyn, New York and put together a mellow set that prepared for Blackbear to hop up on stage. Blackbear really fit the down-vibe of coming out of hibernation and he was ready to go. His red hair and nice visuals never distracted from the angelic voice that released from his soul. I couldn’t help but relax as he moved on in the set but he was ready to go. Getting near the end, Blackbear started running around the crowd and getting people up. His new release “Deadroses,” is something to look into.
When the lights dimmed everyone knew what time it was and was ready for the main act. Mod Sun descended the stairs and slowly made his way to the stage where all of us awaited. With his hippy fur coat and sunglasses he sat down amongst a stage of light pillars and a wonderful live band. This was not unusual for him as he had originally played in a rock band growing up. The newfound hippy-hop vibe was perfect for him though. He was obviously the happiest guy in the room with Look Up being so recently finished. This album features big names like G-Eazy, MGK, and Travis Barker. His stage presence was wonderful and it was easy to see that he started out as a rocker. I really enjoyed watching as he ran into the crowd and got everyone involved in the love.
He raps all about the world of negativity that we live in and how it’s unnecessary. He wrote a book titled "Did I Ever Wake Up?" with similar themes. After being on stage for only a few songs he pulled the crowd up and things started to get rowdy. Soon after the crowd had hopped on the stage, the light board had a drink spilled on it. I saw that black cat on the dj’s shirt out of the corner of my eye and started to get a weird Friday the 13 feel. I knew a slasher wasn’t about to stroll through, but things were starting to get wild. Mod Sun just kept his wonderful smile on as the stage lights came up. He just kept rolling and kept the peace in the room. The show was an overall success as it came to a close. It was perfect in preparing for the warm happy weather on our magnificent campus.
